A long time coming, says Parry

YOU only had to look fleetingly at that rotund figure to know that he liked a pint and a visit to the nearest Outback!

Typically Australian, the new NEC champion Craig Parry made no secret of his intentions after landing by far the biggest cheque of his career, the million dollar first prize in the NEC World Championship, in Seattle on Sunday.

“I’m going to get blotto”, he announced with a big laugh. “They might have to carry me off the plane to morrow morning but I’m sure the Australian customs won’t mind”.

You suspected that Parry was only half joking. Life on the European and American golf tours has been good to him and at the age of 36 he was comfortable enough before Sunday to own a boat appropriately known as Off Course (“that’s where you’ll find me”) and to enjoy a decent life style, if not one not quite so lavish as, say, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, just two of the superstars to whom he showed a clean pair of heels at the Sahalee Country Club. He missed six successive cuts before the NEC and, with his wife Jenny and three children still back in Sydney, ringing home with the bad news wasn’t exactly a bundle of laughs.

“It’s tough when you’re speaking to your wife and she’s 15, 000 miles away”, he explained. “She’s saying I’m playing good and yet she sees 4 over and 2 over beside my name. I was getting frustrated the last three months at missing so many cuts in a row. I felt as though I had to hit it to a foot to make a birdie because I wasn’t making any putts. My brother, Glenn, has been caddying for me and he wasn’t making much money.

“It’s been a long time coming. To win in the US means everything to me. It was never so much that the clock’s ticking as I always knew it was just a matter of time, being in the right place at the right time. Tiger said he didn’t play any worse than normal, that’s good, then, because I kicked his bum. I suppose this is like a major because the best players in the world were here “.

Things might have been a lot different and a lot better had Parry been able to cling on to the three shot lead he held after two holes of the final round of the 1992 Masters at Augusta National eventually captured by Fred Couples.

“It was a hot afternoon and the crowd had a few beers and got very vocal”, he recalled. “It was all Freddie. I was playing well but as soon as Freddie would finish a hole, the crowd more or less started to walk. It wasn’t Freddie’s fault, it was a few handful of spectators. It was very difficult to handle because I hadn’t been used to that. In Australia, I’m one of those the spectators hang around for, whereas over here it was a very unusual experience, and it does rock you around and take your confidence away. You’re trying to line up a putt and there are people moving everywhere. I three putted 3, 4 and 5 and that sort of left the door open up for them. If you look back on the tape, you can see what the spectators were doing in the distance. Today, I just say they’ve got nothing to do with it, I’m just going to play my game”.

That’s just what Parry did on Sunday. And as he looked at his million dollar cheque, he shook his head disbelievingly: “I suppose I’m a millionaire now. It is great to win such a large cheque. Truly amazing. It’s mind boggling. What am I going to do with it? The Australian government says thank you, they get half of it. No, no, I won’t be getting a bigger boat. Not a chance. My wife would kill me”.

The 5ft 6in Parry claims a weight of 170lb ( 12st 2lb) in the US Tour book but that midriff appears to have expanded quite appreciably of late.

Known as “Popeye” for his well developed forearms, Parry is well remembered here in Europe where he campaigned successfully in the late 80s and early 90s and numbered the German Open, the Four Stars Celebrity pro am and Scottish and Italian Opens among his successes.

He joined the US Tour in 1992 and prior to this his best finishes were 2nd on four occasions, the most recent as long ago as 1996, although he had career earnings of $4,449,875 beginning this year.

“I really don’t have any thoughts on what this will mean for my career. My kids are getting older. I’m a family person. I missed my daughter’s 10th birthday which was pretty tough. My youngest son was born the week of Augusta. I like to spend time with them. I go to the soccer matches and run around with them and that type of stuff. I only come away for three or four weeks as a rule.

”Of course it takes a toll of my schedule and I try to have all my holidays when the kids are on holidays.”.

Just like Rich Beem at the US PGA Championship, nobody expected Craig Parry to win a World Championship. Now he has done so and the presence of himself and Beem in the next World Championship, the AmEx at Mount Juliet on September 19-22, adds further to the appeal of an event that seems to become ever more attractive with the passing of every week!